


The story of Snow White and the equation solving monkey

by AgentOfShip



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, F/M, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, meddling Hunter, meddling daisy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-16 03:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14803271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentOfShip/pseuds/AgentOfShip
Summary: Fitz, young engineering student, forgot the complicated equations he'd been working on at his favorite coffee shop. His only hope was that someone found it and put it somewhere for him to find. What he didn't imagine was that it would be found by the only person capable of solving that equation. Or FitzSimmons fall for each other before they even meet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this a while ago, even before the start of season five, wrote two scenes and then kind of lost inspiration for it. But then the finale happened and I needed some fluff in my life so I finally went back to work on it so here it is! As always it was supposed to be a one shot and turned much longer so I cut it into three parts to give myself time to proof read everything correctly and still start posting it now. It's all finished so the next two chapters should posted in the next few days! Hope you'll this as much as I enjoyed writing it : )

"Shite shite shite !" Fitz mumbled as he angrily swiped left on his phone to silence it. He’d been so focused on his work that he didn’t even hear the first two alarms supposed to remind him the start of his next class. And now he had five minutes to get there and Mockingbird's coffee shop, where he'd been working all morning, was a good ten minutes walk from it. 

It wasn't his fault, it was his stupid computer who couldn't solve the bloody equation correctly. It was the only explanation for the wrong result it kept giving him and why he had to re do it all by hand. His teachers would have told him it was a bit presumptuous to assume the computer was wrong and not himself but he didn't care at the moment. 

Closing his laptop without bothering to turn it off, he put it hastily in his messenger bag and made a big pile out the sheets of paper, pens and books covering the table and pushed it all down his bag as well, cursing under his breath about the fact that it would take him ages to sort these all out later.

Putting his bag on his shoulder and across his torso, he grabbed his jacket and left the table. Giving Daisy, his favorite waitress, a small hand wave and a tense smile, he walked out the door and started running. If he only gave a small look back he would have seen the lone sheet of paper that flew out his bag as he hurried out.

-0-0-0-

"Oh now that’s interesting!" Daisy chirped from her spot behind the counter.

"What is?" Hunter sighed, giving an annoyed look to his much too cheerful employee. It was not that he didn’t like her, Daisy was a very good and reliable waitress, especially considering she was juggling this job and her classes at university, but she had this very american way of getting overly enthusiastic about the smallest things. 

"The British girl! She found Fitz’s weird maths drawing sheet I put up on the message board and it looks like she’s writing on it …" Daisy said, sounding really pleased and he just rolled his eyes. 

"And I’m supposed to understand anything you’ve just said?" 

"Ugh Hunter!" She cried out. "Don’t you ever speak or at least give a look at any of your customers here? Aren’t you the least bit curious about the people you see almost every day?"

"Nope … I give them coffee and they give me money in return and I really do cherish this relationship I have with them!" He grinned back, secretly appreciating the way she sighed desperately. Some of them were actually quite nice and they did share a few words once in a while but it was much more amusing to act all grumpy and counter Daisy’s enthusiasm. 

"Well Fitz is a regular, Scottish, a bit younger than I am and absolutely adorable. And now the cute English girl found his equations. I think she’s a genius too …"

"But which girl are you even talking about?" He asked with another loud sigh.

"The English one over there!" She answered not even bothering to point in any specific direction.

"Oh thanks that’s a very helpful description, I guess I’ll just start singing God Save The Queen and see who follows …" He answered sarcastically. 

"She’s the pretty brunette with brown eyes and her hair just under her shoulders …" Daisy answered impatiently like he’d just distracted her during her favorite soap opera.

"God … you must be the worst who’s who player in history … that describes at least ten people in this room including you love …" He said with a side grin and she swatted his arm. 

"Ugh gross … She’s the one by the window, close to the door with a weird blue phone box on her bag …"

"That’s a police box you idiot …" 

"A police box? What’s that? Is it like the secret entrance to the ministry of magic but for the police?" Daisy grinned, looking quite pleased with herself. For someone who seemed to think that everything that came from the UK was absolutely charming, it probably made sense that all her knowledge of the British culture came from Harry Potter and a few very unrealistic TV shows.

"Yeah actually those are actually hidden elevators that get policemen to secret underground tunnels that link all London police stations together" He said as flatly as he could. 

"Oh cool!" She chirped and Hunter had to fake a fit of coughing to hide his laughter. He did manage to make her believe a few stupid things about England once in a while but he didn’t think this one would work. But she looked to be so excited by that situation that she might have believed anything right now.

"So ... this girl found that other guy’s work and now she’s doodling on it. Shouldn’t you tell her not to do it?" 

"Of course no!" She said matter of factly.

"But why?"

"She’s been coming for weeks and she’s so sweet and polite and always working on very complicated sciency things and Fitz, I’ve know him for a few months and he’s really smart and adorable and I’m pretty sure they’re made for each other but they never come at the same time!"

"Okayyyy … so what?"

"Well maybe she’s gonna look at his stuff, fall in love with his brain and she’s gonna go looking for him or something …"

"Sure …" He said with an arched eyebrow. "That seems very likely …"

"God … you’re such a party pooper …" She said flopping down on her stool. 

"And why is it that you always find anyone who’s British cute and lovely or some other crap and you always glare at me?"

"Cause I know for a fact that you’re gross when Fitz is like a scared little puppy. He was always shy and grumpy at first, barely said a word, but then that one time I gave him the leftover pastries we had at closing time and now it’s like he imprinted on me like a baby bird, I've barely ever seen him talk to anyone else … He’s so painfully shy and adorable with his big blue eyes and curly hair, sometimes I want to put him in my pocket and protect him from the world … but also I want him to .."

"Wow … do you want to adopt him or shag him? I'm really confused!" Hunter cut her off with a teasing smirk. 

"See? gross! What I mean is that … oh wait she’s finished writing and she’s putting it back on the message board AND she’s smiling … The game is on!"

-0-0-0-

"Fuck fuck fuck …" Fitz mumbled under his breath as he bolted through the door of the building and started running, again, this time towards Mockingbird's. What was wrong with him today? First, he got to class late because he just didn't see the time and now, he'd apparently lost hours worth of work. Of all the useless notes or silly doodles done during a boring classes, he'd gone and lost the only piece of paper with preliminary sketches and important equations he'd spent hours working on (and still hadn't resolved yet). Hopefully, he'd just forgotten it on the table when he left Mockingbird's this morning and Daisy found it before someone else did. She wouldn't understand any of it but Daisy would recognize his handwriting and sketches and keep it safe for him. 

But when he finally walked in, breathless and a little weak in the knees (maybe he should start doing cardio after all), Daisy was nowhere to be seen. Which was understandable really since she was only working part time here but that meant he'd have to talk to Hunter (honestly how completely horrible his first name had to be to go by something as ass-holey as Hunter?). Hunter was the coffee shop's co-owner and despite being a fellow Brit, he was always kind of grumpy (which was saying something coming from a Scotsman) and not nearly as friendly as Daisy was. Although it was kind of weird the way Daisy looked over him as if he was some puppy she adopted from the pound (She did actually pet his hair once when he was staying late taking advantage of how quiet it was in the coffee shop compared to the mess in his dormitory and, admittedly, looking quite exhausted), she had this very American easy friendliness to her he really enjoyed. And anyway, he'd tried to flirt with her once or twice because … well because she was so nice and pretty but it went so over her head that he's accepted that he would only always be a puppy to her, especially when that meant she always managed to sneak him a few extra pastries and refill his coffee cup for free. 

When he got closer to the counter though, he heaved a sigh relief. Someone, probably Daisy, had found his sheet and put it on the message board. But as he took the pin off and grabbed his precious work back, he saw that some of the notes clearly weren't his. It was written in quite a neat and pretty handwriting and for a moment he thought maybe it was Daisy's since the person had commented on the little robot and monkey doodles he always made in the corners of his notebooks when he couldn't seem to solve some equation he was working on. But then, he saw that the person had also commented his sketches and equations with very smart and on point comments and Daisy's field of study being computer science, she wasn't too bad with maths but could clearly not work on that level. 

His interest piqued, Fitz took the sheet of paper and settled on the closest free table, ignoring Hunter's glare for seating at a table without ordering anything. 

_"Very cute! And how nice of you to give that little guy cool prosthetic limbs :( Unless it's the other way around and it's in fact a robot that has monkey parts and in that case, it's kind of creepy …"_ Was written under the weird little doodle in the corner of the page. Honestly he hadn't given it that much thought but now that he did, it was obviously a monkey with cool robotic parts. 

Under the sketches for the drone idea he'd had, the person (he supposed she was woman, the handwriting was very round, neat and regular and the style felt quite feminine) had written: _"Looks nice! Are they drones? What do they do?"_ And just next to it, she'd drawn a very basic female figure holding something round in her hand and added. _"Thought your dwarves needed a princess. (That's Snow White by the way. As you will have guessed by now, I'm not an art major)"_

Fitz snorted loudly and once more ignored Hunter's glare. It was nice to know someone appreciated the very smart and very funny name he gave to his drones. 

_"Fortunately, I have other talents"_ She'd written under it and had drawn an arrow pointing to … 

Oh.

She'd fixed his equation. She'd fixed that stupid bloody equation he'd spent hours working on and all it took was changing a plus sign into a minus one in the first line and then everything else followed. Fucking hell! Hours of work wasted over a bloody plus sign. And now, whoever that genius was, she must think him to be completely stupid. 

_"And don't beat yourself up! Sometimes you just need a fresh look on something and the rest of your work seems quite promising"_

Now what? Was she reading her mind now? Was this a prank or something? Were there cameras? 

Looking up, all he could see was Hunter still looking at him from the counter and no trace of a single camera. It was impressive in a way, how he could manage to keep a mean look on his face for so long without faltering. Or did he look normal the rest of the time and managed to change as soon as Fitz looked up? That sounded quite exhausting. 

Anyway, once more he ignored it and looked back down at the page in front of him. It was a shame he couldn't thank this amazing stranger who fixed his work and might have saved him another few hours of work. Or from going insane really. He didn't know how long he could have worked on this before he was tempted to throw it all out the window. Well, he supposed he could always leave a message on the message board, hopefully she (or he, after all he couldn't be sure) was a regular and would see the next time she comes. 

Taking a sheet out his notebook and a pen from his bag, he started writing.

_"To …_ (what was he supposed to call her? Problem solving mystery person? Maths Genius? CoffeeShop angel?) _… Snow White"_ He grinned then hesitated for a moment and shrugged before continuing. (Snow White was a funny name but he really hoped she was a girl or that would be pretty awkward!)  
 _"Thank you for solving my equation, you probably saved me hours of work (and my sanity). For my defense I didn't have a proper night's sleep in three months._  
To answer your question, yes those are drones, forensics drones to be more precise and each of them is designed to perform a very specific task, which I would love to talk to you about but I don't think a very public message board is the ideal place for that. But if I ever find a use for an eighth Snow White drone, I will most definitely give you credit for the name.   
And to answer your other question, yes this is definitely a monkey with prosthetic limbs and not the other way around (I'm not a monster!). And as a thank you for your help, here's a more detailed sketch of that monkey with his (super cool) robot parts. Feel free to ask me if you ever need robot parts drawn for any animal, I owe you as much!  
Same if you need help for a maths or physics problem (I assure you I'm usually quite good at it)" 

Feeling relatively proud of himself, he went to work on that monkey drawing. He realized he had a ton of work waiting for him in his dorm room but he'd be up until really late anyway and it's been so long since he took the time to draw something just for the fun of it. He knew he could never be an artist but he'd started having ideas for new machines or ways to transform boring old ones into very cool new ones at a very young age and had quickly realized he'd need to be able to draw on paper what he had in mind before he could build them. So he'd started drawing, mostly machines at first but then he started feeling like he needed to draw people to give a sense of how they were supposed to be used. And since he had a choice between drawing very boring human figures or adorable monkeys looking super badass as they used his machines well … the choice was easy. And he'd actually become quite good at it over the years. 

"Hey! Are you planning on ordering something mate? This is not a bloody library you know!" Hunter interrupted him just as he was about to add a tiny pair of sunglasses to his capuchin monkey. 

Sighing, Fitz looked up and tried his best to look apologetic and not irritated. 

"Ah yeah … of course sorry ... I'll have coffee …" 

"We don't have coffee!"

"You're a coffee shop who doesn't serve coffee?" Fitz raised a disbelieving eyebrow. 

"Of course we serve coffee, we just don't have coffee right now … you can have tea if you like!"

"I can have tea in my room and not pay 5 bucks for it …" Fitz grumbled. What was the point of glaring at him for not ordering anything if he didn't even have the most basic requirement to call this place a coffee shop. "Why don't you have coffee?"

"Machine's broken. The repair man won't be there before tomorrow afternoon so until then it's just tea and hot chocolate … So?" Hunter asked, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently but Fitz ignored it. 

"No no no that's not good. I need my morning coffee, I can't go through the longest day of the week without it!"

"Well, there's nothing for it, I guess you'll have to get it in your room as well …" 

"No I need more than that weak ass thing I can get from the common room coffee maker … What's wrong with the machine?" 

"I don't know. That's why I called the repair man …" Hunter replied, rolling his eyes to the back of his head. That was probably the longest conversation he's had with him since he started coming here just two weeks after the start of school year, once he realized it was the closest place he could find decent coffee. 

"I can take a look if you like …" 

"And I would let you do that becauuuuse …" He trailed off, squinting at him like he just proposed to use his magic wand on it.

"Because I'm an engineer … well training to be one but I used to fix everything at home, my mum didn't have to buy new kitchen appliances in years …"

"Yeah no … I think I'll wait for the guy whose official job is to fix it"

"But I'll do it for free … and tomorrow's coffee of course …" Fitz said with what he hoped was a confident smile. 

"For free you say?" 

Suddenly, Hunter looked a lot more friendly. 

"… and coffee …"

"And coffee … okay fine, it's worth a try!" He said, moving aside and gesturing for Fitz to walk behind the counter and towards the coffee machine.

"… and one of those muffins …" Fitz added with a grin as he walked past him. 

"Ugh just look at the damn thing!" Hunter mumbled but didn't right out refuse of course and Fitz grinned even wider. He didn't know how much it would cost Hunter to have the machine fixed by a professional but he was pretty sure it would be a lot more expensive than coffee and a muffin. To be honest, he probably would have done it for free, fixing something wasn't quite as satisfying as creating something new but he still always had fun doing it. But Hunter didn't need to know that.

In the end it took Fitz twenty minutes to fix the machine and he came home with a bagful of muffins and a promise of free coffee for life. (or as long as he'd be available to fix kitchen appliances at Mockingbird's)

-0-0-0-

The next morning when Fitz came to get his free coffee (free coffee yay), he was not surprised but still slightly disappointed to see that his drawing hadn't moved from its spot on the message board. So after the longest day and the longest mechanical engineering history class in the history of long, useless and bloody boring classes, he decided to treat himself to one more cup of free coffee (free coffee yay) and well if his mystery savior had been there sometime during the day, had seen his drawing and maybe like … answered his message, well that would be a really nice bonus. It shouldn't be that important, he supposed but that had to be the most interesting interaction he's had with a student since the start of year and it would have been nice to at least know the person had seen his answer and thank you note. 

As it happened, his note was gone this time and he could see that there was only one new item on the message board besides all the adds for cheap guitar lessons from a guy who barely started learning himself, free yoga meetings with people who know three poses and think they're yoga masters and "serious young woman/man looking for a roommate who's calm, quiet, tidy, doesn't smoke and doesn't have a pet" who might as well look for a unicorn. Getting closer, Fitz quickly recognized his mystery savior's handwriting and grinned when he saw that the note was addressed to "Robot Monkey". 

Going to the counter, he took his free cup of coffee from Hunter -the man was suddenly much friendlier since he realized Fitz could make him save a lot of money- and went to settle at his usual table to read the note.

_"To Robot Monkey!_  
First of all, thanks for the drawing, it was adorable and put the biggest smile on my face. I needed that after such a long day!  
I'm glad I could help with your equation (and sanity) and since you're proposing, I'd like to pick your brain about a physics problem. And by physics problem I mean that I had a discussion about time travel in Back to the future, Harry Potter and Doctor Who with a friend and we can't decide which theory sounds the most plausible. I've been gathering datas from several other persons but I thought an engineering student (you're an engineering student, right?) could have an interesting opinion. Of course feel free to call me a nerd and not answer this.   
Also, if you ever felt like drawing robot parts for my old family dog Maggie (she's an adorable black poodle) so she can run as fast as she used to, I definitely wouldn't be against it …" 

Under it she'd signed with two drawings that he now recognized as Snow White on a hover board and another one on … was it a horse with Mickey gloves attached to it? No that didn't make any sense … oh no that was a hippogriff of course and Fitz couldn't help chuckling at how comically bad the drawing was. He pitied anyone who ever had to play Pictionnary with her. 

But despite that small flaw, now that he knew she (she was definitely a "she" since she seemed to have adopted the name Snow White) was the kind of person who didn't simply enjoy a movie but actually thought about it and theorized about it to the point of asking a mystery stranger about it, he thought she was even more intriguing that he thought she was. It was too bad really that they couldn't talk about it face to face because Fitz had a very heartfelt conviction about time and the possibility of time travel and it was going to be hard explaining it all on a single piece of paper. When it boiled down to it, he supposed the way they handled it in Harry Potter was the closest to his theory so he started with that when he took another page from his notebook and his pen. He also didn't forget to mention how much he approved of her tastes in terms of movies and tv shows and even came up with a few suggestions. 

When he was done, there wasn't much room left but he still managed to draw a nice artificial exoskeleton that could definitely help an old poodle get strength back in its tired limbs. Actually he was starting to really like of ideas of designing prosthetics for animals. Maybe he should look into it more closely. 

Feeling relatively proud of himself, he gathered his stuff and went to pin his note on the message board. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to get one more (free) coffee to go. Too bad Daisy wasn't working though because as much as he'd warmed up to him, Fitz felt like his puppy dog eyes wouldn't work on Hunter to get one of those nice caramel muffins as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks, Fitz walked into the coffee shop almost every morning and every evening feeling like it was Christmas morning. After those first few exchanges, it became a regular thing. Sometimes they would seek help over a work related problem (From the kind of things she seemed to be working on and her knowledge of very gross things, Fitz had gathered that she was most likely studying biology or chemistry or maybe both?), share a funny anecdote about something that happened during the day or talk about anything really, from book or movie recommendations to a very documented debate about which one was better between the classic chocolate chip muffin or the more daring strawberry and cream one which had just given Fitz another excuse to stay until closing time and discreetly fist pump when those were by chance the only ones remaining and Daisy gave them to him. (But not without reminding him that he should not only eat that and also eat vegetables. Honestly, it was starting to be a little vexing how much she saw him as an adopted stray and not at all like a man!) 

The whole thing felt really nice and he supposed it was what his mother meant when she said she missed having people write actual real letters to her and that there just wasn't the same excitement about receiving an email than there was when you went to get the mail and saw that someone had written to you. He never really understood it until now because even though he was still convinced that the important thing was what it said and the words used, someone's handwriting also said something about them. And Jemma's was always perfectly neat and elegant but it was also very regular with just the right amount of space between lines to make it agreeable to read, not to mention the terribly badly drawn stick figures she sometimes used to explain a theory or situation and that he'd come to find quite endearing. 

In almost every message he'd left for her, he'd managed to include a drawing of an animal with all kinds of robot part. She seemed to like it more and more every time. In his latest message, he'd drawn an owl with robotic wings he thought might be his best work to date. Snow White seemed to agree and brought it to his attention that it would probably be what Hedwig would look like if Harry Potter was set in some kind of dystopic future where Voldemort won and all the non pure blood were forced to go into hiding in some underground magic bunkers. Fitz thought it to be a bit dark but he would definitely read that anyway. Also, she said she liked it so much she was going to frame it and asked him to draw robot parts for her. His first reaction was to wonder if it was her subtle way of saying "Draw me like one of your dystopic future creatures" and snorted into his coffee at his own bad pun.

After that, his first instinct was to tear a piece of paper from his notebook and start drawing what he thought could be a really bad ass Snow White. But as his pen started flying over the paper, he started wondering what she actually looked like. Of course he knew that for Snow White to be recognizable, she needed to have black hair and creamy white skin and since the version people knew better was Disney's, he'd need to give her a vaguely medieval looking dress with blue top and yellow bottom. But this Snow White was supposed to be his mystery pen friend and he didn't want to offend her. Like drawing her too curvy if she was in fact quite skinny or just the opposite. He thought they had a nice thing going there, the last thing he wanted was to ruin it by waking up potential insecurities in her. 

In the end, he decided to do a version of Snow White that was the closest he could remember to the Disney one and added one robotic arm and a half mask on her face and under it, he wrote:

_"Here's bad ass dystopic future Snow White for you! I will gladly make a more accurate version of what you ask if you tell me what you look like and which parts of you you're willing to let go to have cool robotic parts!"_ (It's only later that he realized that for all he knew, she might already be missing an arm or a leg and prayed that it wasn't the case or that could really appear awfully insensitive of him)

He knew that asking her to describe herself could actually sound like a slightly more gentlemanly (or maybe just pre-technology era) way of texting "send nudes" but the truth was he'd been thinking of asking her to meet and maybe even ask her out on a date if things went well. After all, recently, and maybe he was imagining it, but it felt like their exchanges had taken a bit of a flirty edge once or twice. Like when she told him how embarrassed she was when she fell asleep in class and he answered that her being Snow White, he wasn't surprised and then she asked if he knew of a prince charming that could wake her up with a kiss in case it happened again. Of course that could have been for the sake of the pun but he kind of liked the idea that she may be flirting.

But still, he couldn't find the courage to flat out ask her to meet. Of course there was still the possibility that she was in fact a 50 years old man but it really didn't feel like it and it was her mind he was interested in the most anyway. She was incredibly smart, funny, had really good tastes in movies and if she was willing to correct a stranger's equation like that, she was obviously pretty generous. he didn't really care what she looked like but he just wanted a chance to meet her and hear her voice and see the delight she managed to express on paper play out on her face when she'd discover his latest drawing. And even though he really enjoyed those exchanges, there were a lot of things about his work that he wanted to talk to her about that he couldn't possibly explain on paper and leave in a very public place. 

For a week after their five or six first messages, whenever he didn't have to be in class or at the library, he came to Mockingbird's to work and see if maybe he could happen upon her but he had no luck. The only people who got close to the message board was one of those huge asshole frat guys and he was incredibly relieved when he saw that the guy only put up a flyer for a Christmas party at their house where it was mentioned that the dress code was beach party (Ah! Nothing said Christmas like a bunch of idiots in bermudas and bikinis in a (most likely) overheated house). Anyway, he still found answers to his messages during the week but it looked like she was only ever coming here when he was in class and, if he believed in those things, maybe he'd think it was a sign the universe didn't want them to meet.

Looking at his watch, Fitz realized he didn't have much time left before having to go back to class. It happened a lot when he was "talking" to her, he noticed. So he quickly wrote a few more words about how things were going with his dwarves since she asked and then asked her if she'd finally found the tech solution that's been evading her for weeks in regards to that mystery substance she was working on. Then re-reading everything quickly (he had a feeling she was the kind of person who appreciated a perfect use of grammar and vocabulary), he gathered his stuff, put it all back hastily inside his messenger bag and went to pin the piece of paper on the message board before giving Daisy a small smile and a hand wave and walking out the door.

-0-0-0-

"So have they met yet?" 

"Who?"

"Who do think I'm talking about? Fitz and Hermione over there, you've been watching her for fifteen minutes, you're not exactly discreet about it!" 

"Her name's Jemma!" Daisy huffed with a roll of her eyes. "And I'm being perfectly inconspicuous, I'm cleaning the counter!" 

"You've been doing it for fifteen minutes. Is there an health inspector coming that I'm not aware of?" He smirked, turning around to look at the girl in question and try to understand what was so special about her. She was pretty enough he supposed. And as always, surrounded by books with her head down, writing something on her notebook. Probably re-writing her notes and color coding them or something. She looked to be that type. And now, he supposed, Fitz's type as well. 

"Oh shut up!" Daisy let out and moved away to start cleaning the coffee machine, which still gave her a good enough view of what Jemma was doing.

"Hey you can't tell me to shut up I'm your boss!" 

"Yeah, right! Bobbi's my boss … and yours as well … Lance ..." She singsonged. 

"Oh just … isn't your shift supposed to be over?" He glared at her and that only made her grin wider. 

"In twenty minutes. And to answer your question, no they haven't met yet, they never seem to come at the same time … it's infuriating. The other day Fitz came in just two minutes after she left, two fucking minutes, they might even have crossed paths in the street!" 

"Well why don't you …"

"Hey wait" She cut him off. "I thought you didn't care about the customers past the fact that they gave you money in exchange for coffee!" Daisy finished with a truly terrible impression of Hunter's English accent. 

"Ugh please don't ever do that again …" He said with actual disgust on his face. "And I usually don't but Fitz is nice, fixed the coffee machine in no time in exchange for coffee, do you know how much time and money that saved me?" 

"Ah of course, he appealed to the most sensitive side of you … your wallet … Oww!" 

Daisy cried out with an exaggeratedly pained expression when Hunter pinched her arm and she poked his ribs in retaliation. Which made him do the same and it lasted for another long moment until it earned them death glares from a few customers since most of them were reading or working on their computer. When had this place had turned into a library, he wondered. Of course he knew that settling nearby a prestigious university would mean that most of his customers would be students but he hoped it would be like in the TV shows: only rich students spending half their time at a coffee shop table, talking philosophy, drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of pastries. Not people sitting on their own, working at the same table everyday while nursing the same coffee cup for hours and giving them death glares because they had the audacity to speak.

"Anyway Fitz is a bit of a weirdo but he's the only person I can speak football with in this bloody town. I mean he likes all the wrong teams but at least it's the right kind of football." 

"Awwww!" Daisy let out, making him roll his eyes to the back of his head as he continued. 

"And he hasn't been paying anything for weeks so technically he's not even a customer. Anyway he's cool and I decided to take a moderate interest in his love life." 

"Awwww you do have a heart af-"

"Also kid's really tense he could use a good shag or you know ... twenty!" 

"And now you're gross again!" Daisy groaned, sending the wet cloth she'd been using, at him, missing his face by an inch. 

"What? Do you think they're pure little flowers?"

"No I'm not saying that just ..."

"She looks all prim and proper but I bet she likes it dirty, bet she'd like to tie him up or even …."

"Hunter NO NO NO NO NO!"

"And who knows what kind of disgusting porn little Fitz is wat …"

"AAAAHHH LA LA LA LA LA CAN'T HEAR YOU" 

Daisy had her hands over her ears and singsonging from the top of her lungs and Hunter supposed he could see Bobbi's point when she said she didn't want to have kids yet because she already had two anyway. 

"I'm not saying they're angels" She said, lowering her voice once Hunter had decided that it was useless to keep teasing her. To be honest he did find them quite cute and innocent but appearances could be deceiving and he wasn't going to say that in front of Daisy anyway when he could instead plant disturbing images in her head. "But look how she's smiling when she's reading his letter, it's … awwww …" Daisy sighed. "They've got this really cute thing going. Communicating through letters with a mysterious stranger for weeks without even knowing what they look like. It's very 90' romcom and I love it!" 

"Then why don't you do something to make it happen? I don't know just show him a picture of her and I'm sure he'll find a way to come when she does … and by coming when she does, I actually mean …"

"I know what you mean!" She groaned. "But no, I'm like a … an angel! Yeah that's it, I'm a guardian angel watching over them, I cannot intervene Hunter!"

"Hu when was the last time you read the Bible? Because from how little I can remember, they do a shitload of intervening so really you should …"

"No no no, that's really romantic, the whole falling in love with each other's minds. It needs to be fate when they meet not because I lured Fitz in with a picture or the promise of free muffins or whatever!" 

"That's ridiculous! What if someone else asks her out first? Like that big stupid cabbage head over there? And what if she says yes? She might miss the chance to meet the love of her life because you couldn't be bothered to arrange something for them … Not cool Daisy!" He said shaking his head in faux disappointment. 

"No, cabbage head's obviously not her type. Her type is nerdy and adorable with a side of could become really hot with new shirts, a haircut and a bit of facial hair."

"Well that sounds quite specific. Do you think she could ever find someone like that?" He retorted sarcastically.

"Oh just ... anyway I'm telling you it's fate it'll happen someday! Mark my words!"

"Ugh … do as you like I don't care …" Hunter mumbled under his breath before going back to watch football on his phone. Man U had to win so he could finally rub it in Fitz's face for once. Those Scots and their big mouth!

-0-0-0-

_"To Robot Monkey,  
Was that your subtle way to tell me you want a picture of me? Or for us to meet up? But then again, I did kind of ask you to draw me like one of your dystopic future robotic animals so I can't really blame you."_

God, she was perfect!

_"And actually I've been thinking that it'd be nice to meet you and talk face to face after all this time. Also, since you asked, I've hit a snag on my project and I could really use the help of a (competent) engineer so if you could solve that equation for me, then we could talk about it."_

So she actually wants to meet me, Fitz thought, grinning as he read Snow White's latest message. I'm finally going to get to see her and talk to her and … oh god I'm going to meet her, perfect genius fairy tale princess and she's going to see me, ridiculous monkey boy. Oh god!

Fitz was panicking now, the excitement and nice fluttering in his stomach slowly turning to blinding fear. What if they had nothing to talk about once they actually meet, what if she saw him and just walked away. He wasn't exactly the prince charming type she might expect after all, with his skinny body and mop of blond curls that made him look even younger than he was. Because of course there was the matter of his age. Even if she was in her first year as well (which was unlikely considering everything she already knew about chemistry) she was probably at the very least nineteen or twenty and what twenty years old girl would date a boy that wasn't even old enough to vote and looked like he wasn't even old enough to drive. It was most likely too late to let his beard grow enough to be convincing but maybe he'd have time to go to the hairdresser's and go shopping for new clothes, even though if he knew what kind of clothes would make him look older, he'd have bought them by now. And anyway, maybe none of those mattered because for all he knew, "she" could still be professor Vaughn or that weird bearded guy from the bus stop.

Not to mention that she didn't actually give him a way to contact her. Or was she there, somewhere, spying on him and trying to decide if she wanted to talk to him or not. And why did she give him such a ridiculously easy equation to solve? She couldn't possibly need help with that. Or was it a test of some kind? Looking up, he turned around and scanned the room. The place was rather empty, as it always was on a Friday night, most students having either gone home for the week-end or out in a bar drinking alcohol rather than coffee. Two girls seemed to fit what he thought would be his mystery girl's age but they were deep in conversation with one another and clearly didn't care about him. Looking behind him, he met Daisy's gaze behind the counter and she gave him what he thought was an encouraging smile. He suspected she'd been reading all their exchanges for weeks now and he couldn't really blame her, a message board wasn't exactly the most private place but it still felt a little bit weird and he quickly averted his gaze. 

Well, there wasn't much he could do right now and at least doing maths always helped get his mind off things, even when they were as simple as this. So he took a pen out of his bag and started writing. 

Just as planned, it barely took him two minutes and now he was left with a really large number and still no way to contact her. It was all really weird, their messages had grown quite long over the weeks to the point where they had to write extra small to make it all fit on just one sheet of paper and this time, she only wrote him a few sentences along with that useless equation that she somehow presented as essential in order to …

"Oooooh …" Fitz let out quietly, realization finally dawning on him. It was so obvious it made him wonder if his mum was right and girls did make even the smartest boys completely dumb. It wasn't a big number, it was a phone number. It made sense obviously, she wasn't going to leave it on the message board for everyone to see. It was really quite smart although he would have to tease her about not putting more effort into creating a more complicated equation. Which, as easy as it was, didn't stop him from checking it all again three times before he decided to enter the phone number in his contact list. 

Taking a deep breath, Fitz tried to calm his nerves, push all his fears and insecurities and focusing on the fact that a girl who was, at least on paper, absolutely amazing, had given him her phone number, he pressed the call button. He had a feeling that if he didn't do it now, he'd never find the courage to do it and then he'd have missed his window and she'd think he wasn't even interested in meeting her.

He just had the time to take another deep breath before the call connected and a nice, feminine voice answered. 

"Hum hi is this hu … god I hope I'm not mistaking or this is gonna sound really weird but hu … is this Snow White?" He asked tentatively and heard a soft watery laugh on the other end of the line. 

"Yes!" She chirped enthusiastically. "Robot Monkey, you're Scottish!" She added, sounding delighted about it and he let out a relieved sigh. 

"Yeah yeah I am. And you're English! What are the odds, right?" 

"Well between the two of us we could probably find out …" 

It was his turn to laugh. She sounded just as sweet and funny than she had on paper and her voice was definitely feminine, quite young he thought, and English. Yay! 

"Well it's nice to hear your voice after all this time"

"Yeah yours too …" She answered with a warm tone in her voice that made him trust that she meant it and didn't say it just as a courtesy because he said it first. "Oh and by the way, sorry for all the mystery with the equation. It wasn't a test or anything, I just thought it wasn't safe to leave my number on the message board. My friend put an add there for danse lessons, she got two genuine phone calls for the danse lessons and dozens of calls from perverts and stupid frat boys. At some point, it became so bothering that she had to change her number and then … but hum I'm rambling sorry!" She cut herself off and he couldn't help chuckling. He liked the way she talked like her mouth couldn't quite keep up with how fast her brain worked. It happened to him too sometimes. 

"No no it's alright. Makes perfect sense, it was quite smart really and it only took me a minute to solve it anyway."

"Yeah thought you would." She said with an appreciative tone. "So hum do you have time to meet up someday? I mean if you … if you want to of course?" 

"Yeah yeah of course I want to!" He cried out rather enthusiastically, maybe too enthusiastically, then cleared his voice to sound a little more detached. "I wouldn't have called if I didn't want to … I'm hu-I'm actually free for the rest of the day if you hum … if you like. I was planning to work at Mockingbird's until closing time but there's nothing too urgent."

"Oh! Are you at Mockingbird's right now?"

"Yeah yeah! Called you as soon as I got your message!" He answered. Again too enthusiastically. Well, it wasn't like he had such a good poker face and would be able to look less than nervous, excited and most likely delighted when he finally meets her anyway.

"Eager" She said and he could hear the laughter in her voice as he started blushing. "Okay then can you hold on a minute?" 

"Yeah … sure."

He supposed she was checking her agenda. Fitz had one of those too except he marked things in it but never looked at it again because he had an almost perfect memory anyway. Not to mention he had zero social life so other than his classes and assignment deadline, there wasn't much to remember anyway. 

Keeping the phone close to his ear, Fitz started rummaging through his bag on the floor to pick up his laptop. He might have exaggerated the non urgent character of some of the assignments he was supposed to be working on this afternoon and if she was indeed willing to see him at some point, he might as well get to it immediately and get as much of it done by the time they'd decide to meet up. 

"Hi again!" She chirped and her voice sounded strangely clear and loud compared to what it'd been just a minute ago. Which made complete sense because she was in fact right in front of him, giving him the most blindingly beautiful smile he's ever seen. Had he, in fact, been corresponding with the actual Snow White all this time? Because she really was the fairest of them all. 

"Wow. That was the cheesiest, more ridiculous pick up line ever" He thought. "Thank god I didn't say it out loud." 

"Hi!" He said instead, smiling back. And apparently, she didn't miss the way he looked at her because she looked down with an adorable blush coloring her cheeks and he would have worried about embarrassing her if it wasn't for the pleased little smile that tucked at her lips for a moment. 

"I was just on my way here when you called so I thought I'd surprise you … Hope you don't mind?" She said with a slight grin that clearly meant that she knew perfectly well that he didn't mind at all. 

"No no no. Of course I don't mind."

"Great! Cause I've been dying to talk to you and see if you're really quite as good as you seem to be … you know with maths and … other stuff …" She added a bit sheepishly when she noticed how he raised his eyebrows and smiled in amusement. He liked the way she seemed just as bad as he was at controlling what came out of her mouth. It was reassuring to know he could trust her to tell the truth, it was refreshing and took quite a lot of his stress away. 

"I'm Jemma by the way. Jemma Simmons …" She added, extending her hand for him to shake. 

"It's really nice to finally know your name Jemma" He grinned. "I got so used to calling you Snow White, I was kind of expecting you to walk in with a bunch of woodland creatures following you." He added and she gave him another one of those soft watery laughs and it sounded even nicer in person than on the phone. "And hu ... I'm Fitz. Leo Fitz but please call me Fitz."

"Really nice to meet you Fitz." She replied as she took her jacket off and pulled the chair opposite him to sit down, her bright smile not even leaving her face for a second.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the last chapter! Hope this is satisfying to everyone who's been following those past few days and thanks again to everyone who commented and left kuddos! And since I'm on a roll and procrastinating on the work I'm actually paid to do, I'm already working on two new stories :-D

"Oh my god it's happening!" Daisy whisper-shouted in Hunter's ear, making him jump a bit and hit his head on the counter under which he was crouched to get a new pack of napkins. 

"Oh for god's sake …" He groaned. "WHAT is happening?" 

"Fitz and Jemma of course!" She replied with a manic smile. "She just came in and they're talking! Look!" 

"Oh that …" Hunter replied, affecting complete disinterest in the situation as he stood up and leaned on the counter to actually watch them. Just a little bit. 

"Look look! They're smiling at each other … and she's blushing now … awwww … oh look now he's making her laugh! Aww well done Fitz! I knew you had it in you." 

"Oh yeah she's laughing at his joke, start printing out the wedding invitations." 

"Come on look at them! Even you can't deny they're adorable! They're so excited they're talking over each other now." 

Of course they were adorable, all shy smiles and blushing cheeks like a couple of cartoon puppies! They'd make the cutest couple and he'd be really happy for them but he couldn't tell her that, he couldn't tell her that deep down, he was an hopeless romantic. Hopefully too, Bobbi would never tell Daisy the way he proposed to her or he'd never hear the end of it.

"Yeah yeah sure …" 

"See I was right to wait!" Daisy continued, too excited to even acknowledge whatever Hunter said. "I knew they'd find a way to meet on their own … That's fate Hunter!"

"Yeah right … fate … or you know … the fact that I called Fitz and asked him to come fix the broken coffee machine earlier…"

"Ugh Hunter …"

"And by broken I mean that I just unplugged it to make up an excuse so Fitz would come at Jemma's usual time because I thought your obsession with fate was bullshit!" He finished with a pleased little grin. 

"Hunter!" She cried out, punching his arm. 

"What?! Look at them now, they're all smiley and flirty and whatnot. What more do you want?" 

"Spontaneity!"

"Well for all they know, it was only chance that brought them together today. Also cabbage head's always looking at her, we had to do something before it was too late. It was only a matter of time before he asks her out!"

"Ugh you don't know that!" 

"Yes I do. I'm a man. I know what THAT look means …" He replied with a raised eyebrow and a small smirk pulling at his lips. 

"Just because YOU're disgusting doesn't mean …"

"Oh look, she's touching his hand!" He cut her off. 

"Awwww …"

Way too easy.

-0-0-0-

It took Fitz less than ten minutes to realize how truly brilliant Jemma was. Even more so than he thought when they'd simply been trading notes on the message board. And it took him barely more than that to realize how everything else about her was absolutely amazing. Once they went through the inevitable first few minutes of shyness and awkwardness, they quickly fell into the face to face equivalent of their written exchanges. Now that there wasn't the risk of someone else reading it, Fitz could talk to her about his drones and show her the most recent schematics his professors had approved, meaning he could start building them soon. Jemma already had plenty of suggestions and it was only from the top of her head. Also, she was finally free to talk to him about her dendrotoxin and it was absolutely brilliant, possibly revolutionary. Fitz also noticed that when she got excited about something, Jemma tended to speak over him or complete his sentences. And by the time they finished their first coffee and ordered another one with muffins to go with, Fitz had started doing the same. He also noticed than whenever he said something funny or a little weird, she'd scrunch up her nose in the most adorable way, pushing him to maybe be a little bolder than he'd usually be about telling her the embarrassing amount of science puns he could easily remember. 

But she really didn't seem to mind because she'd already insisted that they meet later that week so that he could help her find an adequate delivery mechanism for her dendrotoxin. (He already had several ideas for it and he knew he'd do everything in his power to find the perfect one because there was no way he was about to be relegated with the other engineers she'd worked with and deemed useless and incompetent). 

Also, the more they talked, the closer she got to him. Whenever he said something especially interesting, she'd lean over the table, intentionally or not, and whatever he was saying, it was making it hard to focus on it rather than the lovely dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks or the fact that her eyes were not exactly brown when you saw them up close but rather some sort of caramel color with specks of green and even gold when the light was reflected in them. But it's only when things started straying towards more personal topics like their family or their childhood that Fitz realized how Jemma maybe appreciated him for a little bit more than his brain and he hadn't completely imagined the flirty undertones of their last few notes. 

"So hum …there's something I have to ask and feel free to tell me to piss off because I know you're not supposed to ask to a … (girl? woman?) … lady …" He started, slightly wincing at the outdated word he'd just used but that seemed to amuse her so he continued. "But hum … considering you already have the one PHD and working on the second one, I was wondering, and I mean maybe you're just older than you look but …" 

"I'm seventeen" She cut him off with a small grin.

"Oh … wow …"

"That was what you were asking right?" 

"Yeah yeah it was … I mean I figured you were a bit of a genius from you know … all your letters and what we've just talked about but you being seventeen, that's … even more impressive. All this time I figured you were at least five years older than that, which would have already made you exceptionally smart!" 

She was blushing by the time he stopped talking but he could see her proud little smile. If she was anything like him, she knew there was no use in being modest about her intellect. Fitz didn't think much of himself but at least he knew he could always count on his brain. 

"Well unless YOU look much younger as well" She said, tilting her head to the side as she seemed to observe him so thoroughly he thought she was looking directly into his DNA to determine his age. "I think we're about the same age right?" 

"Yeah … yeah I'm seventeen as well."

"Right. See you're a genius as well!" She grinned. 

"Yeah but you're still one PHD ahead of me!" 

"Yes but when you're done, you'll be a rocket scientist, which is much cooler. You need to take the cool factor into consideration!" 

Fitz chuckled. 

"Wow, you really mustn't have spent much time with engineers if you think we have the reputation of being cool, I think you have us mistaken with the ones who actually get to use those rockets to go to space …" 

"Oh please … there's nothing special about astronauts, any one can be with a little bit of training. But building rockets, that's something else entirely. And well I suppose my results are bit biased considering you're the only one I've ever spent a considerable amount of time with but … I stand by what I just said." 

There was a sparkle in her eyes and something definitely warm in her smile that Fitz thought he'd never seen directed at him before and that made his heart do funny things inside his chest and his lips tuck into a smile of their own volition.

She was obviously waiting for him to say something now and Fitz had the feeling that whatever it was, it was going to affect their potential future relationship and its nature. So taking a deep breath and a gulp of his coffee (or at least he hoped it was his because their mugs got all mixed up and it seemed that they'd been drinking the exact same amount from it) and just said the first thing that came to his mind. 

"Well at least I was right when I thought you were a girl" He grinned and she chuckled. 

"Oh did you really? What made you think that?" 

"Well I'm no expert or anything but your handwriting did look quite feminine … not to mention that you didn't mind being called Snow White …" 

She laughed out loud this time before focusing her gaze back on him. 

"And is that a good thing? That I'm a girl I mean?" 

Fitz supposed he could have tried affecting a casual, detached attitude but he wasn't exactly smooth at the best of times and he certainly wasn't going to be when Jemma was smiling at him like that. Again.

"Hu yeah … definitely a good thing."

"Well that's very good then …" She said, slowly sliding her hand until it was on top of his where it rested palm down on the table between them. It was incredibly cold (especially considering she'd been holding her mug of hot coffee with it) but it was the softness with which she lightly moved her fingers over his skin that sent delicious shivers up his arm and his heart hammering in his chest. "… because I'm really glad you're a boy as well …" 

Without overthinking it for once, Fitz turned his hand around until it was palm up and their fingers were brushing each other's palm. She let out a small gasp of surprise when he did but after only a second, she resumed the light movement of her fingers so he did the same. He supposed it wasn't much but it was bolder than anything he's ever done, especially with a girl he technically just met but he was glad he did. It felt so nice and tender that it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside and strangely enough, it didn't feel weird. Actually it felt incredibly natural, like all the time he ever spent working on tiny machinery had only served to prepare him and make his hands gentle and agile enough to touch her hand the way she deserved to be touched. When he managed to tear his gaze off the mesmerizing view of how well her smaller hand fitted in his larger one, he saw the fond and pleased smile on her face and knew that would have been the perfect moment to tell her that the next time they meet, once they'd be done working on her dendrotoxin, they could maybe not go home and instead go out to eat something together. Somewhere nice preferably. But Fitz was pretty sure that if he tried to tell her that now, it would come out as a garble of noise that would most likely make her wonder if he was having a stroke. How could he expect being able to ask her out on a date when he wasn't even able to formulate it in his head? 

Turned out the decision was made for him because that's when Hunter decided to announce that the coffee shop would be closing in five minutes. Which was followed by a weird announcement from Daisy saying that yes they were closing but there really was no rush and that whoever was doing something important at the moment could linger a little longer. Then Hunter added that some people here had an actual social life and needed to go home at some point and then it seemed to devolve into another one of their weird bickering but Fitz couldn't hear what they were saying. Not that he really cared anyway because Jemma had taken her hand away from his and already had her jacket back on. And that wasn't any good. Fitz needed more time with her to feel more relaxed and be as "cool" as she thought he was when he finally asks her out. 

"Wait hu … do you-I mean do you … maybe want to go get a drink or something to eat?" He finally managed to blurt out and she grinned at him before looking down at their mugs and remnants of muffins on their plates. "Well I mean something other than muffins and coffee obviously like hu … dinner … or just maybe go for a walk, if it's not too cold out or I don't know just … I don't feel like leaving you just yet but I'd understand if you have things to do or just don't want …"

"Fitz?" She cut him off, her voice soft but still effectively stopping him in his tracks. "I'd really like to spend more time with you now. I'm not really hungry but don't worry, I'm sure we'll think of something." She added before taking a few steps towards him and taking his hand to pull him up and off his chair. It's only when he saw her look up at him that he realized he had a few inches on her. He wasn't exactly tall himself and her personality shone so bright through everything she did that he never thought such a tiny (and lovely) form could hold it all. 

"So. Ready?" She asked. 

"Uh yeah sure …" 

He quickly gathered his stuff and put it back in his messenger bag that he hung across his chest once he put his hoodie back on. When he was done, he was delighted to notice that she took his hand back like it was the most natural thing in the world and he couldn't help grinning about it. 

Once they were out and just a few steps away from the door, they stopped walking and Fitz turned to her, moving his weight from one foot to the other like a nervous cat.

"So hum did you want to do something in particular or …"

She seemed to be studying him like he was one of her experiments, for what felt like hours but was still most likely only seconds until a small smile tucked at her lips. Then, almost imperceptibly, she took the small step separating them and there she was in front of him, close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating from her body and one hand, the one that wasn't still holding his, on his shoulder. She must have noticed his own smile because she rose up on her tiptoes and, with an aching gentleness, she pressed her lips to his, her hand moving from his shoulder to his neck and ending up cupping his jaw. It was all so soft and delicious that for a moment he felt frozen and he probably only owed it to muscle memory that he started kissing her back before it was too late. But then his brain finally caught up and he melted into it, lightly parting his lips to capture her full upper one as his other hand came to rest on her hip to keep her close and steady. 

"Hmmm" She sighed contentedly before opening her eyes and looking up at him after they finally broke the kiss. "You looked rather nervous about the whole thing so I thought this would take some of the pressure off." 

"Oh …" 

"Also … I've been wanting to do it since you looked up at me with those big blue eyes of yours when I came in earlier …" She added and he grinned widely. "To be fair, I've been wanting to do it pretty much since we started corresponding but there was still the possibility that you were a woman or a weird sixty years old man so …" 

"Not gonna lie, that was one of my worries as well …" Fitz grinned, pressing his forehead to hers for a moment as they both chuckled. "So really … is there something you wanted to do now?" 

"Actually … I don't know about later but I wouldn't mind more of the same for now. What do you think?" She said, grinning mischievously. 

"I guess I could be persuaded …" Fitz replied with more bravado than he was actually feeling. Was this amazingly smart, wonderful and incredibly pretty girl actually asking him if he would mind kissing her some more? And because he wanted to show her that he could also take bold initiatives, this time he was the one to cup her jaw and tilt her head up so that he could capture her lips, this time not wasting a single second of it by overthinking it. And he enjoyed everything about it too, the warmth of her lips and how they tasted of blueberries, the way she squeezed his hand tighter and softly sighed in pleasure every time he lightly sucked on her upper lip and of course how, when he tried to pull back, she only pressed for more and deepened the kiss without a moment's hesitation, which would have left a dopey grin on his face if his lips were free to do so. But most of all and however cheesy that might have sounded, he was incredibly thankful to his past self for being careless and forgetting the blessed piece of paper that brought Jemma into his life. 

-0-0-0-

"Oh wow, they're leaving hand in hand! I must say I truly underestimated those two, thought it would take them a bit longer to get there …" Daisy let out unenthusiastically as she flopped down against the counter.

"Yeah me too I guess … but isn't that a good thing?" 

"Yes yes of course it is …" 

"Then why do you sound like that time your favorite show got canceled?" Hunter smirked, remembering how gloomy she'd been all week. Over a TV show! How ridiculous was that?

"I don't, I'm really happy for them it's just … I thought maybe they'd become friends first, not too long maybe just for a few months and then one of them -probably him, he looks like the romantic one- would make a super romantic declaration -of course it would be here because that's where their story started- and maybe there would be a bit of drama but then she'd realize she loves him too and it would be so beautiful and … WHAT?" She cut herself off.

"Oh now I see what it is … you haven't found yourself a new show to watch haven't you?"

"What? No that's not …" 

"Daisy!" He cried out in mock outrage. "Those are real people with real feelings! It's not nice of you to wish drama upon them! Bad Daisy!" He added, lightly slapping her hand and she rolled her eyes as she swatted his hand away. 

"Well what about you? You lied to Fitz so that he would come and see her today, you manipulated them too!" 

"Yeah but for their own good, so that they finally meet and realize sooner rather than later that they've got the hots for each other!" 

"You don't know that! They're just holding hands, it's not exactly like she jumped his bones in the middle of the room …" Daisy retorted, rolling her eyes as she straightened up and reluctantly grabbed the mop to start cleaning the floor now that the place was empty.

"Oh really? Well look at that then …" Hunter said with wide eyes and an even wider smile, nodding towards the large window overlooking the street. 

"Oh!" Daisy gasped before affecting a casual attitude once more. "Well it's just one kiss it's not like … oh …"

"Yep … someone's bones are definitely going to be jumped tonight …" He grinned.

"What no that's not how you use that … oh …" 

"Oh wow, going directly for the neck, told you she was naughty!" Hunter chuckled before turning around, feeling like a creep watching those kids snogging quite enthusiastically in front … oh wait against their window. 

"Do you think we should go out there and tell them there are still people inside who can see them?" Daisy asked, looking at them with an expression that was a cross between amusement, joy and quite a bit of discomfort, like she had to witness one of her siblings make out with someone. Except she couldn't seem to take her eyes of them.

"Stop watching them you creep!" Hunter cried out.

"Yeah yeah just a moment … it's just … they're so cute I figured they would like hold hands and give each other adorable chaste kisses on the lips and keep the rest … you know … private." Daisy let out, looking happy for them but still a little bit disappointed that she didn't get to witness the slowly building romance she was hoping for.

"Well you forgot to take into account that behind these huge brains, they're still teenagers and thus have a body that's literally boiling with hormones." 

"Yeah I guess …"

"So do you still think they're so pure and adorable?"

"I never said they were pure and they're still adorable … just more bunnies than puppies I guess!" Daisy said with a roll of her eyes and they both chuckled. 

Considering that this conversation was over, Hunter unlocked the cash register and took the drawer out to bring it to the back and start counting the money in the office well out of sight of a potential passersby.

-0-0-0-

Chancing a glance in their directions, Daisy saw that they'd finally decided to stop kissing and were now smiling dopily at each other and that made Daisy smile sincerely. Never mind that things didn't happen exactly the way she imagined, these two truly were perfect for each other and even though they were still young, she supposed there was no harm in starting to plan their wedding and imagining what their adorably smart and British babies would look like. On the other side of the window, Jemma said something in Fitz's ear that had him blushing to the roots of his hair and made Jemma look mightily pleased with herself. Then she took his hand again and they started walking away. Daisy was about to turn around and finally start cleaning up so they could all go home soon when they stopped after only a few meters. 

"Oh what now? They really can't get enough of … oh …" 

Fitz was taking his hoodie off and even though Jemma seemed to protest for a second, he wrapped it around her shoulders then put his arm on top of it and pulled her to him, her head at the perfect height to fall on his shoulder. And like it wasn't enough, he pressed a kiss to her hairline before they walked away and out of Daisy's sight for good. 

"Awwww …" 

The adorable fluffy affectionate puppy side of Fitz was still alive and well and everything was right with the world again.


End file.
